What Changes US
by Fromageinterrupted
Summary: Hawkeye is different and Roy will figure this out. Hawkeye is out of character, that's the point of the story, but you've been warned none the less. T for eventual kissings.
1. Chapter 1

**This story is OOC. And I don't own FMA. But I like you guys. :-)**

**Also, there is no swearing where the character would probably swear. **

"Ow! Dang it Hawkeye!", Jean Havoc was floored. The last thing he expected from this sharp shooting challenge was to end up with a bullet hole in his pants and a slowly bleeding scratch on his rear.

"That could have been very bad! Geez!"

Riza Hawkeye just laughed, a bit maniacally and too joy filled.

"You should be happy you could feel the bullet. It wasn't too long ago you couldn't feel anything at all from the waist down."

Havoc just grimaced at the words while he rubbed the blossoming wound on his butt.

"I guess this effectively ends this challenge, and anyway..." Jean paused to point his free hand at Riza, "I thought you meant it when you were hitting on me. You _were_ hitting on me, right?"

Havoc was answered with another laugh.

"I was and it was just for fun," She said this very loudly while looking back over her shoulder. Then she turned back toward Havoc and continued. "But (snicker) I wasn't the one to shoot you (giggle)."

"If you didn't shoot me, then who?...! BOSS!" Havoc grabbed for his pistol and went storming toward the back of the firing range, red faced, red pantsed, and all together confused and embarrassed.

He was already having a hard enough time adjusting to his legs and the reinstatement into the military, but, adjusting to this new Hawkeye was just plain too much.

Roy was hiding behind some lockers in the firing range locker room, trying to catch his breath. He kept forgetting he had been blind until a little while ago, and today it had led to him injuring his newly reinstated subordinate.

He was a pretty good shot...at least he used to be.

He had wanted to scare Havoc off, away from his lieutenant. His lieutenant?

He shouldn't have had to step in between those two. Ever. But, Hawkeye wasn't herself anymore and Havoc was desperate, and Hawkeye was pretty good looking to be truthful, and she was coming on to Havoc pretty strongly, and Havoc wasn't one to back away from the advances of a woman with...well...a lot of assets...AND, Roy HAD to intervene.

It was his job to protect his subordinates, and a relationship between any of his man and Hawkeye wouldn't do.

What was up with Hawkeye anyway? The change in her had been subtle at first, starting shortly after The Promised Day.

The first inkling of something having changed was in the hospital where Riza and he shared a room.

They had finished their dinners, replacing the lids at almost the same moment, about a week after Roy had lost his eyesight and Riza had almost lost her life.

Roy heard a soft chuckle from Riza's direction, and, though blind, turned his head her directions.

"Something amusing about dinner time, Lieutenant?"

"Nothing Colonel", She retorted rather succinctly.

Roy was skeptical. Riza wasn't a chuckler, and he distinctly heard her chuckle.

He decided to confront her.

"Nothing? You clearly chuckled, and, though I'm glad to hear your light hearted voice, you lied to me."

Even in the darkness, Roy could almost feel her grin grow.

"Sir (chuckle), I'm sorry I lied (sigh). I'm so thankful that we are here, together, and the sight of you eating and carrying on as if nothing had changed made me chuckle with the mundanity of it all. You reminded me of when we were younger and you used to study all through dinner."

Riza's voice had a lightness in it that Roy had never heard. Not in all the years he had known her.

"Okay lieutenant. I'll forgive you for lying..._if _you promise to kiss me."

Roy was pulling out the flirtatious charm, knowing it would set Riza back on track and give her something to heckle him about.

He waited for her "Sir, protocol" and all that, but it never came.

Instead, a rustling of her sheets, the soft padding of bare feet on linoleum, and the whisper, right next to his hear "_you promised_", and then the gentle pressure of her lips on his cheek.

Roy stiffened at the shock. What in the world was going on?

He relaxed a little too late to enjoy the sensation.

"Lieutenant?"

"Yes sir?"

Roy was thankful she hadn't gone back to her bed yet.

He reached out with his left hand, grabbed his lieutenant around the waist, and proceeded to hug the stuffing out of her.

Riza wrapped her arms around Roy and hugged back.

"I forgive you" he whispered.

Riza patted Roy and slowly let go of him. He could feel her slide off the bed and return to her own.

"Goodnight sir." Riza sighed.

"Goodnight lieutenant."

**There will be a few more chapters. I'm aiming for at least one every few days, but I'm going to ACEN this weekend, so there might be a three day break. :-)**

**Thanks for reading.**


	2. Transition

**Sorry for the delay on the second chapter. I was at ACEN all weekend. My first con. I loved it, I had a blast, I will do it next year, Lord willing. That being said, going did inspire a host of stories. All that cosplay really makes one's mind take flight.**

**As for this story, remember, it's out of character on purpose. I don't own FMA. I don't write swears...sorry. It will never be rated above a T. Read on. Enjoy. :-)**

From that moment one, things with Riza got progressively more odd. Every night, after dinner, after the staff had left the room for the night, Riza would make her way over to Roy's bed. She would hug him, or hold his hand, even kiss his cheek occasionally. There wasn't much of anything being said. It was a quiet time together.

One time, Roy was ready when Riza kissed his cheek and turned his face at the last moment, making sure her lips settled on his. She didn't object to the change in their kiss until he put his hand on the side of her neck.

She stiffened in pain and Roy froze, torn between hurting Riza and how much he was enjoying kissing her.

Riza solved his dilemma by pulling away and heading back to her own bed.

"Dang it", thought Roy. He wanted to say something to Riza, but couldn't formulate anything to say at that moment. Finally, chalking it up to pain killers, he rolled over and fell asleep.

They were discharged shortly after that, each to their own home, never bringing up the kiss.

Breda had been assigned to Roy while he recovered, not so much as a body guard, but as a companion and someone to be his eyes.

Riza had been assigned a newly reinstated Maria Ross. She was very clear to Breda, Ross, and Roy that she would be well enough in less than a week, and would take over for Breda.

Roy listened as Breda tried arguing with her, and laughed when she didn't pull out her gun, but, instead, sicced Hayate on him. Breda squealed and promised Riza he would turn Roy over to her as soon as she was ready.

Roy like the sound of being turned over to Riza, mostly because he was hoping all the touching would pick up where they left off.


	3. Paradigm?

**The last chapter was short. My chapter breaks have less to do with the story and more to do with my time to post things. Hopefully this helps.**

Half of it was true. Riza did heal up rather quickly and was immediately at Roy's side.

The touching, such as it was, was limited. Roy's apartment was always full of on or another person, mostly involved with the plan to restore Ishval. He also had the Elric boys drop by frequently, as Ed got bored at the Armstrong mansion, and Al had a million questions for Roy, mostly about girls.

It seemed that exiting his body while still a kid and returning as a teen left a lot of confusion. Roy didn't have any trouble enlightening the young lad, having been raised in a hostess club, and Al was more than happy to hear every detail.

After on particularly enlightening anecdote, Ed began to cough uncontrollably. Al was completely silent (probably filing THAT information away for a trip to Xing), and Riza, for the first time, spoke up.

"I'm changing my mind about you Sir. You really shouldn't be sharing all this with young men. You're getting careless." She followed with a chuckle and a whispered, "I will, however, need to go to your sisters for some tips."

Roy blushed, wishing with all his life he could look in her eyes and see how serious she was. Ed must have overheard, because the coughing fit stopped and the gagging started.

"Lieutenant Hawkeye! That's so GROSS! Why would you ever get tips like that from anyone responsible for creating Colonel Flame-brain over there!"

"Hey! I'll have you know, many ladies have been more than happy to be escorted by me, so I must have been taught something right. Correct lieutenant?" Roy was testing his new boundaries again, listening for a retort from Hawkeye.

She didn't say anything, just squeezed his shoulder and patted his head.

He heard her low chuckle (again with the chuckling!) followed by her asking if anyone wanted tea.

Everyone gave a resounding yes, with Al listing three flavors he would like to try right then.

That boy ate, drank, tasted, no less than two of everything since he got his body and, subsequently, his ability to taste food, back.

As soon as Riza was in the kitchen, Ed leaned in close to Roy and "whispered", "Anybody else notice how weird Hawkeye is acting? What's with her? She's being gentle and...touching YOU a lot Colonel Dimwit!"

Ed forgot to whisper the last part.

"Well, I think it's sweet and about time." Al said. "And Ms. Hawkeye was always gentle, you're just too loud and obnoxious to notice."

"Don't forget, too short to see or hear anything that goes on above a dog's heig-" Roy added.

"I'M NOT SHORT! AND YOU ARE AN IDIO-"

"What's 'about time'" Roy asked, pretending he didn't know what Al had been alluding to.

"That you and Ms. Hawkeye decided to be open about your relationship." As Al finished his statement, Riza came back into the room.

"Open about who's relationship?" She genuinely wanted to know, as she had missed most of the conversation.

"A;l seems to think we've come out of some relationship closet and are now being free with our affections, because the _boys_ (and Roy stressed BOYS) have noticed you touching me a lot, and, that I didn't seem to mind."

Riza laughed, "Sorry to disappoint boys, but there was no relationship to reveal. The Colonel is my commanding officer and I am his valuable subordinate. All the touching is my way of communicating with him now that his eyesight is gone."

At this she reached over, squeezed Roy's hand, and placed his cup of tea into it.

"You have anything stronger?"

"No sir."

"I'm sorry Ms. Hawkeye. I'm so excited to have my body back that I think I might get overly romantic at times."

"Well, I'm not overly romantic, and it still seems fishy to me." Ed said.

"Well, then it will have to be fishy, Ed." Riza said. "I have no intentions of stopping touching the Colonel."

Ed made a face, at least Roy thought he did. Al accepted his three cups of tea, and Riza sat down on the couch, extremely close to Roy. Much closer than she needed to be to communicate to him through touch.

Really, the only thing that Roy could do was to hope the boys would leave soon, because he was getting impatient and would like to kiss his lieutenant again.

They hadn't kissed since that one night in the hospital, and Roy really wanted to test his boundaries again.

"Welp, I really appreciate you boys stopping by," Roy stretched his arms and yawned extra big, "but my first day back at the office is tomorrow, and Ms. Hawkeye can't go home to bed until I'm in mine." Roy wiggled his eyebrows at the boys, hoping he was angled in a way that Hawkeye could't see. The squeeze on his arm indicated otherwise.

Ed cleared his throat to give a smart aleck remark, when Al stepped in "Oh, sorry to stay so late, thank you for the informative evening, and good luck tomorrow."

Roy heard the boys shuffling to leave, then Riza say, "Goodnight boys, good day tomorrow." Then the closing of the door and Riza walking back to him to help him get ready for bed.

Roy stood up and said, "About all that touching..."

He was going to ask her what it was really about, because he knew she knew how confident he was in his surrounding, and how easily he had actually gotten along on his own there last few weeks.

He was going to ask, but then she threw his pajamas at his head and said. "Everything's off, your sheets are turned down, your uniform laid out. I'll be by in the morning to pick you up and make sure you look alright. Oh! there's food for breakfast in the fridge, middle of the top shelf. No cooking or flame alchemy, Sir. See you in the morning."

Roy heard her click her heels, an old instinct to be sure. She squeezed his arm and kissed his cheek.

"-good...night..."

The door closed, sending Riza away into the night. "...lieutenant." He sighed.

Getting into his pajamas was easy enough. Getting into bed equally simple. But, falling asleep seemed to be the challenge for him. His thoughts were on Ishval, Havoc, his team, the boys, the future, and Riza.

Just like every night since she had come back into his life in the Ishval war, he fell asleep with Riza on his mind.


	4. Good News

Chapter 4

Roy awoke with Riza on his mind, more from the dream he'd had about her, than anything else. He really needed to tone down the stories he was telling Al, if this was the condition he woke up in every morning. Riza had been the star of many of his dreams over the years, and he had been more than glad to have them, but that was before she started coming over in the morning to make sure he was dressed properly. A cold shoer it would be.

She came in without knocking. Roy had just gotten out of the shower and had a towel around his waist. His hair was still dripping wet and he shook it around when he realized she had let herself in.

"Sir." She made her presence known. He like the way she said it, a little lowering of her voice with what might have been a purr at the end.

"Lieutenant." He smiled and let his towel drop a little lower on his hips. "I suppose I should be getting dressed. I don't want to be late for my first day back."

"If that's what you want to do...sir." Hawkeye was back. He could hear the change in her voice when she was in uniform, but...there was that purr at the end of 'sir' again.

"I...won't be...long."

It was amazing to Roy how little a difference losing his sight had made. The office was, by and large, the same well-oiled machine it had been when the fuerher had broken up his team. The credit, he could imagine, went to his lieutenant. They were still missing Falman, who would soon have a team of his own, but otherwise, all was well.

Except for the gaping hole in the side of Central. And the exponential increase of paperwork. He was blind for Pete's Sake! Roy immediately tried to excuse himself on account of his being unable to read, but the higher ups countered by assigning him a mousy (he was informed by Breda) girl, to read him each and every page.

The Promised Day and subsequent change in command brought plenty of challenges to each day. Even so, they settled into a routine rather quickly. Hawkeye picked him up earlier and earlier, they started working through lunch, and stayed later and later each day. Occasionally just the two of them, but, more often than not, everyone was there. There were even times when they just worked through, taking turns sleeping on the couch in Roy's office.

The steady stream of visitors did not let up as they worked to restore Ishval. Many people counted Roy and those that served with him as murders, monsters, and the like. But, people like him had to look beyond that. He was an eternal optimist by nature. He did believe in a bright future, full of repentance and hope. The events of the Promised Day only strengthened that optimism and the nights with Riza, in the hospital gave him hope. She had always been his hope in one way or another, her presence being at the back of his mind through many decisions.

Six month passed quickly with the amount of work they had on their plate. Old habits die hard, and Riza and he fell back into their roles of Colonel and Lieutenant, without much notice. The less subtle flirting fell away as the work grew, until there was hardly a difference from before the Promised Day and after.

Roy did notice, though, that when the guys would go out to the bars to blow off steam, Riza would join them. And drink with them. And, now this continually bothered Roy in the back of his mind, flirt with them. All of them. Including him. He couldn't tell if she was touching them as much as she touched him, but she was definitely flirting with them. It was her voice that tipped him off. He imagined her, beautiful brown eyes, half-lidded, one eyebrow slightly raised, while her lips tilted slightly at the corners, running her hands up a guy's arm while they prepared to dance, the guy looking down at her overly exposed... Roy didn't know what Riza would wear, but he stopped his imagination there, because she would never wear anything that would over expose her. Nowhere to hide guns and knives.

"...huge sandwich." The end of Breda's sentence drew Roy out of his reverie and back to the office, which was very full and it was well past lunchtime.

"I could go for a 'huge sandwich' as well", Hawkeye replied.

Riza being hungry spurred Roy into action and he ordered lunch for the entire office from a local sandwich shop that delivered.

The food came quickly and everyone, except Roy, gathered around the delivery guy and his cart ladened with food.

"Oh, hey! Good to see you. I didn't know you were in the military, let alone working so high up in Central." Roy heard the delivery guy say to someone.

"Well'.. This was followed by a throaty and, to Roy, rather sexy chuckle, "The best secrets are kept. Now that you know my secret, do you have anything special for me today?"

Why was Hawkeye flirting with the delivery boy?! Roy was more than a little confused.

"Not today, but now that I know you work here, expect a little special treatment,"

"I wouldn't have it otherwise. Perhaps a cookie...or two. I really like to share." This was followed by another sexy chuckle.

"That's it!" Roy thought. He stood up and attempted to break up the teté á teté, instead tripping on his wastebasket in his haste and falling flat on his face. His plan worked regardless because Hawkeye was yelling, "Colonel!" and was immediately at his side.

Roy was happy to have her attention again.

"Sir, are you okay? Nothing is broken? I'll move the wastebasket under you desk.."

Roy hugged her, cutting off her questioning and answering them with the same action.

He missed being able to communicate with her with their simple eye movements.

The whole office gasped, then coughed a little, then murmured amongst themselves.

"I'm okay everyone. I guess I was overly exuberant about the news I just received."

Roy waited for someone to ask, Fuery not letting him down.

"What news, Sir?"

"Ah, glad you asked. It seems Dr. Marcoh has finished his research on Havoc's condition and will be attempting to give him back the use of his legs today."

This was met with silence, then, Hawkeye hugged him.

"I'm..we're..so happy. When will we know?", Hawkeye asked while helping Roy to his feet.

"I expect quite soon actually."

As if he called it into being, the phone rang. Everybody looked at the phone, wondering who, should, or would, answer.

Hawkeye and the Colonel reached for it at the same time. Having the advantage of sight, Hawkeye reached it first.

"Hello...yes...we're all here...Hey bud!...yes...yes...oh..kay...okay...call back as soon as you can...bye."

Hawkeye turned with tears in her eyes.

Everyone waited.

"That was Ha-Jean...he'll be here next week...the procedure worked!"

"YES!" Everyone exclaimed. They were excited, hugging, jumping, Fuery immediately called back, connecting to a party line. Champaign was produced form somewhere, and a couple of flasks as well.

Amid the celebration, Roy felt a hand slip into his and squeeze. He would know this hand anywhere. Anywhere, anytime, gloved, ungloved, wet, dry, shaking, at peace...Hawkeye.

"I wonder when it will be your turn.." She whispered, causing warmth to creep into his face (and elsewhere), and the hair on his neck to bristle, because her hot breath accompanied her whispered question along his ear. He squeezed her hand back, finding this to be the only response he had. She seemed to understand, giving a squeeze back.

Disclaimer: I own none of Fullmetal Alchemist or the characters therein.

Author's Note:

Thank you for reading. I apologize for the length of time between this chapter and the last. If you have any questions, or otherwise, please don't hesitate to leave a comment or PM me.


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